Another month had almost passed in a blink.
The flowers in the estate had all been planted, and the workers had also learned the methods for refining perfume and brewing wine quite well.
Bai Sheng remembered her agreement with Lu Dagang. On the appointed day, she went to the city gate with Lu Ye to wait for him.
The madam of Chunxiang Tower was woken early that morning by the commotion in the courtyard. A maid rushed in to report that Zhang Lanlan, the ugly maid from the woodshed, had been beheaded.
Her headless body was left in the woodshed, but her head had vanished without a trace.
Also gone was Lu Dagang, the limping dish washer.
Everyone in the brothel was discussing it, wondering who Zhang Lanlan had offended to have her head chopped off.
And that mysterious Lu Dagang, no one knew why he had suddenly disappeared.
If news of a death in the brothel spread, it would surely affect business. The madam ordered everyone to keep quiet about the matter, as if it had never happened.
After all, it was just a dead servant, and there was no need to alert the authorities.
Covering her mouth and nose with a handkerchief, she instructed someone to immediately roll Zhang Lanlan's body in a broken mat and toss it into a mountain ravine outside the city.
It was a shame she had only been bought a month ago and was now gone, a waste of five taels of silver.
The madam grumbled as she returned to her room, only to find a five-tael silver ingot stained with blood on the table. Beneath the silver was a letter.
The letter, written in crooked characters, contained two lines: "Revenge. Zhang Lanlan's head was cut off. Five taels compensation."
These two lines were what Lu Dagang had learned over the past month, precisely for the purpose of leaving without saying goodbye today.
"A man of his word," the madam mused, weighing the five taels of silver and smiling.
When Bai Sheng and Lu Ye saw Lu Dagang, he was carrying a black cloth bag, inside which was a round object.
After calling the two to a secluded spot, Lu Dagang opened the bag and let Bai Sheng and Lu Ye get a good look.
It was a woman's head! Her face was covered in blood!
This couldn't possibly be Zhang Lanlan's head!
Lu Dagang nodded. "Indeed it is. When she was sold to the brothel, she tried to escape, and the madam disfigured her."
Then, he proceeded to explain the process of his revenge to Bai Sheng and Lu Ye in detail.
Zhang Lanlan, upon arriving in the capital, had indeed spared no effort in climbing the social ladder. However, it was too foolish to expect to reach the high echelons by merely selling her body.
The capital was not short of beauties; Zhang Lanlan, at her level, couldn't even get in line and was destined to be a low-level plaything for scumbags.
Thinking that she had been trying to deal with her, Bai Sheng felt no sympathy for her.
This woman was clearly mentally disturbed. Back in Huangsha Village, she had always fixated on her. Apart from marrying Lu Ye, Bai Sheng couldn't think of anything she had done to offend this woman. Yet, some people were truly detestable; even if you stood still and did nothing, they would still dislike you, target you, and frame you.
Such a person deserved to die!
If she had eloped with Lu Dagang back then and lived a simple life, perhaps this wouldn't have happened today.
One reaps what one sows, and she had no one else to blame.
Lu Dagang had fulfilled his promise, and Bai Sheng immediately gave him the antidote.
Lu Dagang was immensely grateful.
After kowtowing to Lu Ye and Bai Sheng several more times, he got up and disappeared into the crowd.
Upon returning home, Bai Sheng completely put the matter of Lu Dagang and Zhang Lanlan out of her mind. She had too many things to do, and unimportant matters were not worth dwelling on.
While the shop was still under renovation, she decided to return to Hongshu Village with Lu Ye. They needed to hurry and open the workshop there to produce face masks, skincare creams, lipstick, and sanitary napkins as soon as possible.
As soon as the shop here was renovated, it would open for business.
Hengheng was still miniaturized into a mini-Hengheng, left in the capital under the care of Lu Hua. As long as Hengheng was in the capital, Bai Sheng and Lu Ye could return to the capital through the space at any time.
For this trip back, Bai Sheng only planned to bring the four cubs, Yang Ming, Lu Huo, Lu Yin, and Lightning and Downpour. Everyone else would stay in the capital.
Of course, the four wet nurses would also be sent home separately.
Bai Sheng gave each of the four wet nurses 40 taels of silver.
This frightened the wet nurses so much that they dared not accept the money. Generally, breastfeeding a child for half a year was worth 20 taels of silver, but to receive 40 taels from Madam Lu was unexpected, especially since she herself nursed them most of the time, and they were merely assisting. They felt the money was too much.
Seeing that they were hesitant to accept, Bai Sheng smiled and said, "You four have been dedicated and truly loving towards my cubs, and you've traveled back and forth with us. These 40 taels are well-deserved, please accept them."
The wet nurses then accepted the money with tears in their eyes.
In truth, Bai Sheng felt unbearable guilt. For the sake of their families' livelihoods, these wet nurses had left their own infants, who were crying for milk, to nurse other people's children.
As a mother of infants herself, Bai Sheng thought of the four children who couldn't have their mothers' milk, and her heart felt heavy. She hoped that these forty taels of silver would improve their family's financial situation, allowing them more time to spend with their own little babies in the future.
From now on, the four cubs would drink cow's milk and goat's milk, as there were herds of cattle and sheep in the space.
All the luggage for their return to Hongshu Village was packed. Bai Sheng sent messages via carrier pigeon to Prince Yu and Ji Cheng, informing them that they would be departing for Hongshu Village soon.
She also sent a farewell letter to Concubine Mei in the imperial palace, specifically stating the date of their departure.
Two carriages, each with two horses, would be used. Yang Ming would drive one, and Lu Ye the other.
At the time of departure, everyone was reluctant to part. However, thinking that their elder brother and sister-in-law (Grandpa and Madam) would only be gone for a few months before returning, the sadness was not so profound.
Lu Hua, Lu Yun, and Lu Yu kissed the four cubs' faces repeatedly, earnestly asking them not to forget their aunt (uncle). The four cubs giggled with delight.
Lu Ye personally drove the carriage. After three days of travel, they arrived in Luocheng, and five days later, they reached Qingcheng.
They planned to rest in Qingcheng for two days and checked back into the same "Guilai" inn.
The innkeeper actually remembered them and treated them very warmly.
Lu Huo, Lu Yin, and the four wet nurses shared a communal room, while Yang Ming had his own room.
After they had fallen asleep, Bai Sheng placed the four cubs into the space and had Lightning and Downpour look after them.
Then, she took a bamboo branch from the space and placed it in the inn room.
This new spatial function was also something Bai Sheng had gradually discovered based on her needs.
Bai Sheng's space generally functioned such that one had to exit from where they entered. The free exit and entry range was within 200 meters.
If one entered the space from a certain location and did not exit from the same location, then to return to the original entry point through the space, one would have to place an object belonging to the space at that location beforehand to serve as a marker.
Simply put, if Bai Sheng entered the space from the inn room, she could exit the space anywhere within 200 meters of the inn.
If she entered the space from the inn, exited through Hengheng in the capital, and wanted to return to the inn through the space, she would have to place a space marker in the inn beforehand.
In order to use the space for free movement, Bai Sheng had tested it numerous times with Hengheng in the capital.
Her space was mysterious and unfathomable. Bai Sheng always felt that there were many more functions yet to be explored.
Hengheng, with its pig-like brain, had a very limited capacity. If Bai Sheng hadn't continuously explored and innovated based on practical needs, the greatest use of this space would probably have been as a well and farmland.